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Dixon had discovered Queen Charlotte Island; but the cruising of the little sloop, Lady Washington, covered a greater area than Meares's, Barclay's and Dixon's ships together. First it rounded the north end of Vancouver, proving this was island, not continent. These northern waters Gray called Derby Sound, after the outfitter.
In order to cut off corners he shaved things rather fine, and getting rather too close to White Island, the dog teams ran along the snow-bridge of a crevasse, the bridge subsided, and all the dogs of Scott's and Meares's sledge, with the exception of Osman, the leader, and the two rear animals, disappeared into a yawning chasm.
Vancouver held that Spain must relinquish the site of Meares's fort and the territory surrounding it and Port Cox.
Meares had only pretended to carry it out in order that none of his crew might be bribed to take it, and then had sent it back by his partner, Douglas true fur trader in checkmating the moves of rivals. Later on, when Meares's men were in desperate straits in this same port, they wondered that the Americans stood apart from the quarrel, if not actually siding with Spain.
Therefore the pompous don treated them royally, presented them with spices and wines, and allowed them to depart unmolested. When the Americans returned from the run up coast, they found the English fort dismantled, a Spanish fort erected on Hog Island at the entrance of the sound, and Douglas's ship the companion of Meares's vessel held captive by the Spaniard.
The Governor-General ordered frozen food to be got ready for Meares's journey. The sledges were horse-drawn between the post-houses. Mr. Rogers, the English manager of the Russo-Chinese Bank of Nikolievsk, helped Meares considerably in securing the dogs. Most of them were picked up in the neighbourhood of that place, but were not chosen before they had been given some hard driving tests.
Meares's dogs were to bring up the rear and start some hours after the ponies since their speed was so much greater. So we started away at 8.15 p.m., marched 7 miles and a bittock to lunch, putting up a "top-hat" cairn at 4 miles, two cairns at the lunch camp, one cairn three miles beyond, and so on according to plan.
So had Meares, another trader. So had Kendrick and Gray, the two Americans. This was the very section which Bering and Cook had left untouched; and who could tell where these straits might lead? They were like a second Mediterranean. Meares argued they might connect with Hudson Bay. Then Spain had forced matters to a climax by seizing Meares's vessels and fort at Nootka as contraband.
Some of the days of travel were without incident almost, the men leading their ponies in monotonous file across the great white waste. The ponies gave little trouble; Meares's dogs, with more dash, contained their drivers' attention always. Day and Hooper turned back in Latitude 81 degrees 15 minutes at "Jehu's" grave, and Atkinson, his erstwhile leader, joined the man-haulers.
They both seemed to think I was all right, but all the same I felt that my unit had been called on to do more than its share and was suffering as a natural consequence. The depot was built in a conspicuous position, and this done, Meares's work ended. He and Dimitri came along with us for a while and then turned back for a long, lonely run over the inhospitable Barrier.
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